It Follows
by RuGrimm
Summary: "If a traveler is going through a desert in the thick of night, Cacturne will follow in a ragtag group. The Pokémon are biding their time, waiting for the traveler to tire and become incapable of moving..." Why does Cacturne follow us? What does it do when it catches us? In the dark of the night, for what ill intentions does this creature want us..? Happy Halloween.


The patience of death is embodied in its willingness to wait for all of us-Ivan Karhoff

A cacophony of laughter fills the Rustboro Trainer's School. Children running around desks and the scrip-scrape of chalk on the dusty, green board at the front are commonplace for the mornings in the tiny two-room building. All around, bright faces are alight with curiosity and a joy suited only for those of bubbling youth.

Numerous charts and posters fill the lively room, and vibrantly colored books line the many shelves along the westward wall. Pokémon much like the troublesome Psyduck and Skiploom wander around the chaos, following their chattering companions with blissful innocence. Amongst the mayhem, a group of student crowds around a particular young girl sitting at a desk in the back of the room.

"Oh my gosh, that's so cool!"

"I wish my parents would let me do that!"

"Naww, it's no big deal, really. It's just like walking to Petalburg from here, you big dumb-dumbs!" The girl swarmed with attention leans back in her seat nonchalantly with her arms crossed over her chest. Her ebony hair swings over her shoulder as she looks away from one of the misty-eyed boys on the other side of the desk. "Anyone could do it."

"My parents won't even let me take Marill outside for anything other than school," one boy complains, his backwards, blue hat falling over his furrowed brows.

Another girl in a white and black dress presses her hands on the other's desk to lean forward as she speaks. "What pokémon did your Pa lend you this time, Suna?!"

"Oh, he just leant me his poliwrath. No big deal," she snorts, rolling her eyes as her classmates oooh and aaah. "He lent me his flygon last time. All his pokémon are pretty strong."

The door behind the girl closes as an older gentleman in brown suit and matching hat trudges into the room with a cane in one hand and books in the other. "Excuse me, young'uns. Can you let me through?" he asks as he taps the calf of one of the boys with his cane.

"Sure thing, Mr. W! Did ya hear what Suna-chan did yesterday?!" exclaims the boy as he lets the teacher through.

With a chuckle, Mr. Wulperheim shakes his head as he nears the board. Setting down his books and reaching for an eraser to clear away his students' 'artwork' from the chalkboard, he replies with simply, "No, I'm afraid not. What did Matsumoto-san do yesterday?"

"Seriously, Tommy, it's not that big of a deal," Suna repeats with a huff, flicking the boy's bare arm below the sleeve of his yellow shirt.

"Well, what is it?" repeats the white-haired man, beginning to write today's lesson with a shaking hand. His bones creak and crick with every movement, and if it hadn't been for the joy of teaching the youngsters, he would have retired ages ago.

"Suna-chan says that her Pa let her cross the desert to Lavaridge town all by herself!"

The chalk snaps mid-sentence.

Silence envelops the room thereafter, and even the boisterous children and pokémon outside the conversation still in mute confusion as they stare at the shaking old man at the front of the room.

"You crossed the desert...by yourself?" he echoes, voice even more strained than usual. He doesn't turn to the children, afraid to frighten them, but such a thing had been achieved by merely the sound of the chalk breaking and falling out of his hand to shatter on the tile floor.

"Yeah. It wasn't that hard. All the pokémon were weak to my dad's pokémon, so it didn't even take that long." Suna sighs long and heavy and reaches up to push ebony bangs away from her annoyed, green glare. "What of it?"

Mr. W stands in silence for several moments and then turns slowly, looking past the ignorant faces of his other students to stare solely at the confident 10-year-old. "When you crossed the desert...did it ever feel as if...something was watching you? Did you feel as if...you were being followed?"

"Well, yeah. There was this short guy following me on the way back home. I didn't get a good look at him, but he was definitely stalking me - the creep. I just kept walking," muses the young girl before shrugging.

"Wow, that's spooky!"

"I wonder who it was…"

"I would have peed my pants!"

"Matsumoto Suna." The room freezes again under the direct, authoritative voice of their teacher. Under his stern gaze, all but the girl cower. "Did you let It see your face?"

"Um, I don't know if it saw my face. I guess I turned around to look at him a few times to see if he was still there. So what? Is this one of those scary bedtime stories grown-ups tell kids. If so, you aren't gonna scare me, Mr. W.," Suna mutters, rolling her eyes, but her attitude changes as the teacher's fist hits the board.

WACK!

"You are a stupid girl! Do you realize what you've done?!"

Blinking and thrown off by his sudden anger, the girl swallows and slides down in her seat. The rest of the students flinch under the weight of his voice, some sitting down and watching the exchange with frightened anticipation.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you about the dangers of the desert?" he growls, his bones popping as he clenches his fists even tighter.

Shaking her head quickly is all the young student can do in response.

"Students, have a seat." The teacher turns around and wipes away what he had written for their lesson as his students obediently sit at their desks without a word. As he finishes, he turns around and lets the youthful eyes read the single word on the board written in thick chalk.

Cacturne.

"Does anyone know what this means?" At the blank looks and scarce head shakes, Mr. Wulperheim sighs and sits at the chair behind his wide desk. His trembling hands sit clasped on the papers in front him, and he must take a deep breath before he continues. "Then allow me to tell you the story of the Demon of the Desert."

"Long ago, a trainer ventured through the desert with his pokémon. At that time, few had managed to traverse to the other side, and so no map had been made. They wandered for days lost in the sands until the man's pokémon was gravely injured and weak. Low on water and food, they marched on, but the pokémon couldn't keep up. Eventually, the sands separated them, and that pokémon was left behind.

"Unsure of where to go, the loyal pokémon waited for his trainer to return for him. And he waited and waited. But the man never came back. Eventually, the pokémon passed on and became a spirit of vengeance. It possessed a desert cactus and became the creature we know as Cacturne.

"To this day, Cacturne aimlessly wanders the desert looking for its master. It follows young trainers traveling alone in the desert endlessly. It will follow you until you stand still long enough for it to find you and it will never stop. Should it catch you, it will consume you and replenish its energy so that it can keep searching. No one knows why it keeps following you. No one knows why it wants to kill you. But it will and does. Your only hope is to keep running until it can no longer find you."

The classroom is quiet save for the shaken breaths of a handful of children. Even young Suna stares with a blank expression on her paling tan face.

"Matsumoto-san, I want you to leave immediately. Go home. Tell your father. He's the only one that can protect you now. Go," he instructs, standing and pointing to the door. "I want no part in this thing. You staying here risks the lives of the other students, and I will not allow that. Leave immediately."

Without questioning, she begins to gather her stuff in a hurry. Her hands fumble with her notebooks and pencils as she tries to stuff them into her pink side bag.

"It's persistent. It won't stop. It will follow you until you no longer have the strength to run, and if it catches you… Don't stop for anything or anyone. Don't look for it. NOW, GO!"

Flinching at his command, she throws her bag over her shoulder as the unzipped container sprays pencils and pens over the floor. The young student doesn't stop to pick them back up, and she runs out the door.

A flash of light overtakes her as she bursts into the busy streets of Rustboro. Bag flying behind her as she rushes away in a sprint, she doesn't stop to address the curious passerby stopping to stare at the strange girl running away from school. Her feet hit the ground as fast as her heart is beating, and pushing through those too slow to get out of the way, she ducks through alleys and street corners.

Run.

She trips over a bag of garbage.

Run.

Narrowly, she dodges the man walking with the ladder over his shoulder.

 _Run_.

Her breath catches as she chokes on her own spit, and as she rounds one corner in particular, she runs out of strength and slows to a walk in front of the local stationary store. Colors, vivid but indistinguishable from one another, swirl in her eyes. With a shivering sigh, she stops beside a hot dog vendor outside the Devon Corp Building. The smell of cooking meat and pungent mustard fills the air in a miasma stronger than the steely smog of Rustboro.

Eyes remain unaware of the panicked student standing beside the line of strangers prepared for an early lunch. Her body is visibly trembling, and she folds her arms across her body to hug herself. The orange and blue jacket she wears tightens over her skin from the motion, and it makes her feel more claustrophobic than she feels.

Looking around, she glances at the random people passing by on their diverging paths. They have not a care in the world-from the happy couple hand-in-hand to the mother and her newborn child. But her...she feels as if everything is starting to turn upside down.

Was there really a creature out to get her?

No...of course not. She's overreacting. What sort of person just runs out the door because of a scary myth? Certainly not her. Her dad especially wouldn't ever do that…

But something in her twinges at the possibility of the legend being true. What if Mr. W was right and there was this crazy pokemon chasing her?

If it had been anyone else telling her the story, she wouldn't have fallen for it 'hook-line-and-sinker.' It wasn't like Mr. W to play pranks on the students. Although he was usually laid-back as a teacher, he wasn't the type to spread falsities.

Cacturne - he called it…

She thought it a peculiar yet...familiar name… Although the young student couldn't remember where she'd heard it before, she knew that it likely wasn't made-up. This thing was real, but was it following her?

The dilemma leaves Suna in a tight spot, and she looks past the vendor to the Casteliacone truck where a girl a few years younger than her is stretching up to reach the window with her few pokédollars in hand. With a sigh, she closes her eyes and shakes her head.

No, it was likely a prank. The likelihood of there being a murderous pokémon on the loose is too low. If there was, more than just Mr. W would have known. Her dad would have told her. And besides, if Cacturne really was walking around, wouldn't someone fight it with their own pokémon?

Nothing adds up.

Turning around, she glances back in the direction of the Trainer School. She'd go back and give that teacher a piece of her mind. Her Pa would be furious when Suna told him tonight about the teacher's stupid prank. Dumb teacher might just get fired.

With a short huff, she clutches the strap of her bag and marches back toward the school. A defiant puff of her cheeks turns her face red the more she thinks about how she was duped. To think that she'd fall for something like that! The nerve of some people...

Something ahead catches her eye.

She's not sure why, but her feet stop moving...and she stands there...staring at the oddly familiar sight.

There's a short figure ahead walking toward her through the crowd. It moves strangely...swaying from side to side like the pendulum of clock. Every step it takes is stiff and forced as if its legs are heavy and full of sand. As it nears closer, she can see that it's a bright green with an oddly shaped hat upon its head that obcurs its eyes from her skeptical gaze.

She doesn't exactly know what kind of pokémon it is, but there's something so familiar about the way that it walks… Although she tries to ignore it, she can see its image in the memory of her stalker from the desert.

Something about it causes her heart to race, and without be aware of it, she starts to take steps backward-slowly at first and then gradually quickening. From the corner of her eye, she can see a man in business casual clothes walk toward the pokémon with a bright smile on her face, and she fights the compelling feeling in her gut that begs her to warn him.

"Excuse me, Cacturne," he says with a cheerful wave, walking beside the creature still walking directly toward Suna. "You look pretty mighty strong, I'd say! Would you happen to know where your trainer is?"

The 'Cacturne' doesn't reply, still walking ahead as Suna steps backward.

"You see, there's this tournament in Lilycove at the end of the month, and since you look like such a tough guy, I thought I'd give you the offer of a lifetime!" he pitches. However, the pokémon doesn't pay him any mind, and the smile on his face slips for a moment. It's on him again like cheap wallpaper. "Heya there, buddy ol' pal! What do ya think?!"

Stepping in front of the green creature, he leans down to stand face-to-face with it. At first he meets the amber gaze glowing in the dark craters of the creature's head...and then his act begins to falter.

"U-um...hello?"

The creature regards him for a moment, standing still before the business man with the same blank expression on its face. And then…

SPLAT!

Blood sprays in a red arc over the street and those unfortunate to be close to 'splash-zone.' Screams erupt from the scattering crowd, and the mass of people diffuse away from the two like pen ink beneath a drop of water.

Suna watches in horror as the man slumps over Cacturne's needle arm, the spikes sticking out from the man's back and stained a vibrant crimson. Gurgling, the man is dropped to the ground, and the creature looks at the body with what one would assume to be...complete disinterest for it only stares at him a moment before looking back to the trembling school girl only feet away.

Their eyes meet, and beneath the intensity of its dead gaze, the fear that had been building in her heart finally floods her brain in a tempest of panic. She quickly turns and follows the examples of the fleeing people around her. Suna glances over her shoulder to the cacturne as it steps of the man's limp body - whether or not he was dead, she didn't know - and continues to follow her. As she sprints through the crowd, she notices the few trainers on the sidelines with their pokéballs in hand.

With a silent prayer, she hopes that maybe they can stop the creature set on catching her.

Over ridges and fields and through swarms of whismur and zubat, Suna runs until she breaks past the tunnel to Verdanturf, the cave and fields beforehand only fleeting memories in her head. Her heart is in her throat, fear slithering through her body and out her panting, dry mouth. She stops just shy of the route toward Mauville, and with a trembling exhale, she leans against a white fence and breathes in the infamous fresh air.

There hadn't been enough time to let everything sink in, but as she catches her breath and allows the adrenaline to calm, she replays the vivid scene in her head.

The man. The blood. The way he fell to the ground as if all the life had been sucked out of him.

And she...she was next.

If it killed the man just because he stood in her way...what would it do to her?

Focused on the what-ifs, Suna doesn't notice the kind woman approaching her.

"Are you all right, dearie?" she asks, and Suna opens her eyes to see the middle-aged woman standing beside her. The woman tilts her head, hands clutching the white apron over her pink dress.

"No...No, I'm not."the little girl says as she fights to keep the tremble out of her voice. All at once, the reality of what's happening starts to overload her head. She's only just starting to live! She doesn't understand… What is she supposed to do?! Helplessness overtakes her, and she starts to cry as she steps toward the woman and leans forward. "That thing...That thing's out to get me!"

With a concerned frown, the woman opens her arms to allow the ravenette to collapse into her embrace. "What thing, hun?" she tries to ask calmly, hand stroking the head of the other as Suna sobs into her apron.

"Cac-Cac...t-turn-ne...I-It's gonna-gonna kill me…" she manages, shaking her head as snot dribbles onto the white fabric and begins to leave a visible wet spot. "I ca-can't...I can't…"

"You can't what? Cacturne?" The woman only continues to hold her, settling on comforting her first and then asking questions after.

Nearby, the homely folks of Verdanturf begin to take notice of the girl and the woman near the eastward exit. Gathering nearby, they watch from a distance…

To the crying school girl, the minutes turn to seconds as time becomes a blur. As her body begins to still, running out of tears to cry, she sniffs and starts to relax in the older woman's arms. The feeling of her embrace reminds her of her father…

'Papa!'

As if struck by lightning, she pulls away from the lady and rubs at her face with her forearms. "I-I'm so sorry. I-I have to go!"

The woman nods slowly, obviously confused as to why a random girl running through broke down like that and is now about to hit the road as if nothing happens. However, she doesn't even bother to inquire, merely managing a forced smile. "Let me know if you need anything," she says, turning toward the town before stopping and asking a question that sends spiders down the other's spine.

"Is that green fellow that passed by earlier what you're talking about? That...Cacturne fellow?"

"Cacturne?" chokes the girl. She stands abruptly, her eyes as wide as saucers, and looks down the route to Mauville.

"Oh yes. He was quite a short thing with a green hat. Oh! Look! Now that I mention him, isn't that him over there?"

Suna follows the woman's pointing finger to the cave in which she'd come out of minutes before. There, a short figure stands. Its green body sways with every step towards them it takes, a gleaming yellow peering out from what appears to be a pyramid-shaped hat. Any other details are too small to make out from a distance, but that's all the student needs to begin trembling violently again.

"I-I've got to go!"

"B-but-" The woman turns to face Suna again, but the girl takes off in another wild sprint down the route to Mauville.

Somewhere along the way, she drops her bag in her panic. Looking over her shoulder as she passes the daycare, she can see its swaying form walking after her nonchalantly. Although she can't see its eyes...she knows that its looking at her.

Tears start to form in the corners of her eyes, the horror of her reality starting to sink deadly claws into her mentality. Fear raises its decomposing skull and stares through her quivering soul. With every step she takes, she can fear her hollow legs thumping against the dirt path. Mauvile seems so far away, but she can see the peaks of buildings peeking through the trees.

The river sprays droplets into the air nearby, reflecting the wide-eyed and terror-stricken face of the child running...and that of the yellow gaze of her stalker.

Her shoes meet pavement with a clopping sound, and relief washes over her as she weaves through the crowds of people in the busy center of Hoenn.

Looking back through the heads of people, she is given only a second of relief when she can't make out the green cap of the creature behind her.

 **HOOOONK!**

Distracted by looking behind her, the world blackens as the air leaves her lungs. For a moment, she didn't feel anything. All she could make out was the feeling of the pavement as she laid upon it and the screams of people around her.

And then there was the pain...so much pain…

If it hadn't been for the adrenaline, she imagines she would have already passed out.

She sobs pitifully as she inhales the sharp scent of blood. Crimson streaks down her face as her bleary gaze tries to focus on something – anything - around her. Her legs, scratched and skinned, lay tucked beneath her as she sits up and looks around at the gathering crowd of concerned people.

The man in the car that had hit her jumps out and runs to her without closing the door behind him. Even from where he's standing, she can't make out what he looks like as the world spins and red obscurs her vision. Vaguely, she can hear his voice as he puts a hand on her should. "Hey, are you all right!? Do you know your parents' number? Someone call 119!"

"Wh-where is it? D-Does anyone see it?" she murmurs, trembling as she looks through all the faces. Despite the situation, all she can think about is It. It is likely still out there, following her. She can't stay here. She can't… Suna looks around at the worried faces around her, trying to find the swaying creature she knows is still following…

Still hunting her...

"Is someone a doctor!?"

"Oh my god, there's so much blood!"

"That poor girl…"

"It's coming...It's coming. I have to go," she sobs, trying to get up. Her legs shake beneath her, and she reaches out her arms to a stranger in desperation.

"Is she crazy?"

"Oh my gosh, who is she? Isn't that Matsumoto's kid? Can someone call him?"

"Did she hit her head? Oh, Arceus! I think her leg's broken!"

"PLEASE! Someone help me!" She looks around with tears blurring her spinning gaze, and through the crowd behind her, she thinks she can see the green figure pushing through the crowd with its signature sway. "ANYONE! HELP!"

Screaming now, she manages to get up and pushes through the crowd. Her bloodied hands divide the people like dogs to sheep, and her legs throb as blood leaves a rosy trail of crumbs behind her.

Her home is close. She can get there, and then Pa can protect her. He's strong. He can fight it. He can take her away.

Home. Home. Home. Home. Home. Ho-

Her legs give out on the steps up to her house, and she can see the red roof from where she lies. Looking down, she whimpers at the flesh hanging from her calf, and white flashes from the gory remains of her left leg.

With a straggled sob, she tries to pull herself up the steps with her upper body. Her arms tremble as she slowly makes her way up the incline, and as she does, something in her compels her to look behind her…

There, swaying only twenty feet away, walks the cactus creature. She can see the spikes protruding from its body now, sticking out of its lumbering form like needles in a pin cushion. The pumping veins over its body seem to be throbbing through its thin skin, like a heart in time with its lazy steps.

Pump pump. Pump pump. Pump pump.

With a dreadful shriek, she claws at the stone steps as blood and tears gush down her face. When she reaches the top, somehow, she stands again and hops on her one semi-usable leg toward the house. Her other leg drags behind her in a dark trail over the grass. White flowers are stained a vibrant vermillion.

Reaching the door, she turns the handle and realizes that its locked.

Her keys were in her bag.

"No...no...nononononononononoNOO!" Banging her fists on the door, she bawls as she leans against the red wood and looks toward the creature reaching the top of the steps. "PA! PAPA! OPEN THE DOOR! PLEASE! PAPA!"

It's no use. She imagines that he must be sleeping after his night shift the day before… He can't hear her...

The reality that she's going to die starts to sink in the young student's mind, and Suna weeps as the sound of its throbbing veins are now audible to her ears.

Pump pump. Pump pump. Pump pump.

No...No she can't...she can't let it… What would Papa think if he came home to her body?

Despite her fading vision, she can see the image of the back screen door in her head. If she could just get in there, she could get inside and wake him up…

Desperately, she hobbles around her house towards the back door. As she rounds the corner, she trips over a flower pot and lands harmlessly on the grass below. Scrambling toward the door, she pushes out with her back leg and crawls to the screen. The grass leaves a dirty green and brown stain over her orange uniform, but it's no worse than the red she's already covered in.

She slides up the three steps to the back door, and as she reaches for the latch, she can see the Cacturne rounding the corner less than six feet from her. Fumbling with the latch, she flicks the hook up, pulls the screen door open, and pushes the interior door forward before falling into the kitchen with a sob. With no time to waste, she stretches out and grabs the interior door to close it with a loud BANG!

As she locks it and leans against the edge of the kitchen counter, she can see the green creature staring at her through the glass. It stands there on the top step, its blank gaze unwavering on her bleeding form.

From where she sits, she can see the teeth peeking out from the black holes dotting the lining of its mouth. How it opens, she doesn't know...but she doesn't want to find out.

With a shiver, she lets out an exhausted sigh and pushes herself back toward the kitchen island. Her back pressed against the wood, she becomes more and more aware of her spinning world. Blood pools out around her as she looks around and tries to speak.

"Pa...pa...Can you...hear me? Pa...pa...Help...Help me...please...someone...anyone...help."

Her body is shaking...convulsing with sobs, but her eyes are too dry and blood-stricken to make any more tears. She's scared. So afraid.

Everything is getting cold, and she doesn't want to die. Papa has to be somewhere. He just can't hear her. He'll come find her any minute now…

Scooting across the tiles, she smears crimson over the ivory tiles and toward the opposite side of the kitchen until she reaches the refrigerator. When she glances up, her heart skips a beat, and any hope she harbored...dissipates.

"Suna: I'm going out for groceries. Call me if you need anything. The phone is on the counter. Love you, Pa."

Unable to stand, she collapses on her side and shrivels into a shaking ball. Her eyes are a dead stare now, body only shivering from the cold as the will to even cry leaves her.

The sound of the glass on the door shattering doesn't fully register in her head; everything is such a... blur…

One moment, she's looking at the white cabinets and the dust balls beneath them...the next, she can see the green swaying toward her. Its needles scrape and tap upon the tile floor, mingling with the pulsing throb of its veins.

Pump pump tap. Pump pump tap. Pump pump tap.

Any moment now, she imagines that Papa will return with the groceries. He'll come. He'll save her… Papa...Papa…

"Papa...I'm sorry...I'm sorry…" she mutters over and over again, staring through the veil of blood loss at the green figure now standing over her.

It's green holes tear apart with a dreadful ripping noise, the bottom and top jaws dislocating as rows of yellow teeth gleam in the light filtering in through the kitchen sink window. Even in its expressionless face, she thinks she can see the delight in those soulless yellow eyes.

Pump pump. Pump pump. Pump pump.

She doesn't feel anything after that...except the cold darkness and the full body sensation of needles tickling her shredded flesh.

 **VI VI VI**

 _"-na? Suna? Suna, baby, can you hear me?"_

Suna's lashes flutter as she gradually begins to open her eyes. As she does, she has to squint, eyes throbbing from the sheer brightness of the room. Her head aches, but as she regains consciousness, she realizes that it's the only thing that she can feel…

"Suna!?" A rough hand firmly, yet gently, grasps her forearm, and a figure rises from the seat beside her bed.

The room begins to take form, and slowly but surely, she begins to make out the starch white sheets over her body and the grey walls suffocatingly surrounding her. A high-pitched and systematic beep fills her ears with the sound of what she recognizes as her father's voice.

"Oh my Arceus, Suna! You're awake!"

She glances toward the familiar face stained with obvious trails of dried tears. His once clean face is now trimmed with visible, black scruff, and his hair sticks up in all directions as if he had been running his hands through it. With a small smile, she tries to speak, but the sound that comes out of her lips is not anything like the voice she's accustomed to.

"Paw...Pe…"

Tears of relief follow the trails already engraved on his reddened cheeks, and he sits back down in his chair with a hand over his brow to hide his eyes from her. He hold her arm with his other hand, squeezing it tight...but she can't feel it.

"Oh...Suna...Suna...I'm so glad…" - he has to gasp in between his words to find a breath between his sobs - "that you're awake."

Only able to manage a small smile, Suna rests her cheek on the pillow and glances up to the monitor with the steady green dot rhythmically bouncing up and down across the screen. She can see numbers displaying all sorts of things she doesn't understand fill her and the bag of clear liquid beside the screen upon which they're displayed.

"Suna, do you know what happened?" her father finally manages, looking up to her with an expression stricken with a level of tired that she has never seen on him.

She looks across the room to the flowers in the vase across the room beside the window, squinting as she tried to recall what happened.

There was the Cacturne… It was in the kitchen with her...and Pa was out to...get the groceries… And...and…

Her own eyes begin to water as she shakes her head, not able to remember anything past that, and she can't vocalize her thoughts. Her voice is stuck in her throat, and she's not sure that what will come out will even be remotely understandable.

"You were in a car accident, Suna…"

She blinks, a stray tear rolling down her cheek as she looks at her father wide-eyed.

"You were hit by a car," he says, his voice straining as he fights the urge to cry again. "You didn't come home from school...and when I got a call from the hospital...They-They said that you were in critical condi….condition…"

He chokes on his own voice, swallowing hard; he looks down to Suna's arm as he runs a thumb over the white bandages there. "I...I thought...I thought you were...I thought I was...I already lost your mother...and I-"

Every pause is filled with a desperate breath, and he has to stop and look away - the pain of the thought far too much to process.

"Paw...pe…" strains the girl, only one finger twitching when she tries to lift her arm in an attempt to comfort him.

"You're...you're gonna be okay…" her father exhales, closing his eyes as he squeezes her arm again and looks back toward her with a forced smile. "The doctors said that you're gonna make a full recovery."

Although she can't nod, she can smile, and so she does to the best of her ability. Too drugged to feel or move, that's the most she can do to make him feel better, and she wishes she could do more…

Just to hug him again…to know that THIS isn't the dream…

"I'm gonna go tell the doctor you're awake now, okay? Just...Just…" he tries to think of a command...something he can tell her to do… However, she doesn't have a lot of options, and so he cuts off his sentence and nods as he stands. "I love you."

He walks away, his form slumped and feet dragging as he trudges to the door, turns the handle, and disappears down the right corridor.

Turning her head, Suna closes her eyes and relives the memories in her head.

Memories…

Could they even be called memories? If they were memories, that would mean that the Cacturne was real... That would mean that it's still out to get her.

But somehow, she doubts that. Now that she thinks about it, it doesn't really seem real.

She was hit by a car, yes… But the events in the school room...in Rustboro…stopping just to cry in the arms of some stranger and then run off…

They aren't realistic. They aren't real.

Knowing that brings her relief, and although she can't move much, she can still look over to the window across the room...where the light shines through in diverging columns and seems to sparkle amongst the few dust particles hanging in the still air.

She smiles, starting to tune out the sound of the beeping machine beside her.

Perhaps when Papa came back...she'd ask about Cacturne… But for now, things were looking up…

…

…

…

…

...

 _Pump pump tap. Pump pump tap. Pump pump tap._

Her heart seems to roll in her chest. Even the vaguely moving dust particles in the room still and the beeping noise completely disappears as the sound of only nightmares overtakes her senses.

Dread rising in her chest, she slowly turns her head to the door in which her father left.

There…

There it stands…

Right there...in that hallway.

Yellow eyes look through the small, verticle rectangle of glass and into her room...locked solely on her.

The green dot that had once been so steady now jumps on the screen at the pace of spoink's bounce. Numbers start flashing, and she can vaguely hear the many noises starting to scream in protest… But everything else is numb...all she can see - all she can hear - is the creature outside her bedside door.

Its prickly spines tap on the glass, and the hole-y smile it bears seems to be stretched out farther than she remembers it being. As it lowers its arm, now aware that it has her attention, it stares for several moments before the image of Hell flashes before her eyes. She can only watch as the few remaining pieces of skin framing the circles rips and once again opens to reveal the rows of drooling teeth. However, it wasn't the hungry expression she'd seen in her dreams. Instead of opening its mouth to devour her...she could see with bone-chilling terror...the unmistakable grin splitting its demented features.

Limbs immobile...voice gone...unable to reach the button for help - she can only watch as the silver handle of the door slowly begins to turn.

 _Finé_


End file.
